Women footballers defying headscarf ban in France


SARCELLES, France — Every time Mama Diakité goes to a football game, her stomach gets in knots.

It happened again in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris, on a Saturday afternoon recently. His amateur team had come to face the local club, and Diakité, a 23-year-old Muslim midfielder, feared that he would not be allowed to play in a hijab.

This time the referee let him in. “It worked,” she said at the end of the game, leaning against the fence surrounding the pitch, her smiling face wrapped in a black Nike headscarf.

But Diakité had just fallen through the cracks.

For years, the French football federation has banned players from participating in competitions from wearing conspicuous religious symbols such as turbans, a rule it claims is in line with the organisation’s strict secular values. While the ban is loosely enforced at the amateur level, it has kept Muslim female players busy for years, shattering their professional career prospects, and removing some from the game altogether.

In a France that is more multicultural than ever before, women’s football flourishesThe ban also sparked a growing backlash. At the forefront of the struggle hijabeusesA group of young turbaned football players from different teams joining forces against what they describe as a discriminatory rule that excludes Muslim women from sports.

Their activism got on a nerve in France and rekindled heated debate. Integration of Muslims in Country that has a tormenting relationship with Islamand by emphasizing the struggle to reconcile the French sports authorities’ defense of strict secular values ​​with growing calls for greater representation on the field.

“What we want is to be accepted as we are, to implement these slogans of great diversity, inclusion,” said Founé Diawara, president of Les Hijabeuses, which has 80 members. “Our only desire is to play football”

The Hijabeuses collective was created in 2020 with the help of researchers and community organizers to resolve a paradox: although French law and FIFA, the governing body of world football, allow women athletes to wear hijabs, France’s football federation forbids it. would break with the principle of religious neutrality on the field.

Supporters of the ban say the hijab points to an Islamist radicalization taking over the sport. But the personal stories of Hijabeuses members highlight how football has become synonymous with liberation and how the ban continues to feel like a step back.

Diakité started playing football at the age of 12 and initially hid it from his parents, who viewed football as a men’s sport. “I wanted to be a professional football player,” he said, and called it a “dream”.

His current coach, Jean-Claude Njehoya, said that “when he was young, he had a lot of talent” and that could push him to the top. But once she realized that the headscarf ban would affect her, she “didn’t push herself any further,” she said.

Diakité said that in 2018 she decided to wear the hijab on her own and give up on her dream. Now he plays in a third-division club and plans to open a driving school. “I don’t regret it,” he said. “I am either accepted as I am or not. And that’s it.”

19-year-old midfielder Karthoum Dembele, who wears a nose ring, also said he must confront his mother to be allowed to play. He quickly joined a sports-oriented program in middle school and auditioned for the club. However, he didn’t realize that he might no longer be allowed to compete until he learned of the ban four years ago.

“I managed to get my mom to give up and I was told the federation wouldn’t let me play,” Dembele said. “I said to myself: What a joke!”

Other members of the group recalled episodes when the referees barred them from the field, causing some to feel humiliated, quit football, and switch to sports where the headscarf was allowed or tolerated, such as handball or futsal.

Over the past year, Les Hijabeuses has lobbied the French football federation to lift the ban. They sent letters, met with the authorities and even held a protest in the center of the federation – to no avail. The Federation declined to comment on this news.

Paradoxically, it was Les Hijabeuses’ most staunch rivals that eventually brought them to the fore.

In January, a group of conservative senators sought to enact the football federation’s headscarf ban, arguing that the hijab threatens to spread radical Islam in sports clubs. This move reflected a regularly practiced and continuing dissatisfaction with the Muslim veil in France. mixes up argument. one in 2019 French store cancels plan to sell a hijab designed for runners after a shower of criticism.

Powered by the efforts of the senators, Les Hijabeuses waged an intense lobbying campaign against the change. Making the most of their strong social media presence, the group has nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram. Petition that garnered more than 70,000 signatures; gathered dozens of sports celebrity lawsuits; He held games in front of the Senate building and with professional athletes.

Vikash Dhorasoo, a former French midfielder who attended a match, said he was stunned by the ban. “I just don’t understand,” he said. “The Muslims are targeted here,” he said.

Senator Stephane Piednoir changedenied the accusation that the law specifically targeted Muslims, saying its focus was purely on conspicuous religious signs. However, he acknowledged that the change was due to the Muslim wearing of the veil, which he described as “a propaganda tool” for political Islam and a form of “visual religious propaganda”. (Piednoir also denounced PSG star Neymar’s display of Catholic tattoos as “misfortune” and wondered if the religious ban would extend to them as well.)

Although the amendment did not cause friction, it was eventually rejected by the government’s majority in parliament. Paris police banned a protest organized by Les Hijabeuses and the French sports minister. I said law allows women wearing headscarves to play, clashed state colleagues against the headscarf.

Hijabeuses’ struggle may not be popular in France, where six out of 10 people support a ban on headscarves on the street. According to a recent survey by survey company CSA. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who will face President Emmanuel Macron in the runoff on April 24 — one shot at the final victory – He said that if elected, he would ban the Muslim veil in public places.

But on the football field, everyone seems to agree that veiling should be allowed.

“Nobody cares if he plays with him,” said 17-year-old Sarcelles player Rana Edge, who came to watch his team play against Diakité’s club on a bitterly cold February evening.

Edge was sitting in the stands with nearly 20 of his fellow players. All said they saw the ban as a form of discrimination, noting that the ban was applied loosely at the amateur level.

Even the referee of the match at Sarcelles, who allowed Diakité to play, seemed to contradict the ban. “I diverted the other one,” he said, refusing to give his name for fear of backlash.

Pierre Samsonoff, former vice-president of the amateur branch of the football federation, said that the issue will inevitably come to the fore in the coming years, as women’s football develops and Paris hosts the 2024 Olympics, where Muslim veiled athletes will take part. countries.

Samsonoff, who initially advocated banning the hijab, said she has since softened her stance and acknowledged that the policy could result in excluding Muslim players. “The question is whether we’re creating worse consequences by deciding to ban on pitches than to allow,” he said.

Senator Piednoir said the players were ostracizing themselves. However, comparing the situation to “firefighters” being asked to “listen to pyromaniacs”, he admitted that he hasn’t spoken to any of the turban-wearing athletes to find out their motivations.

Dembele, who manages the Hijabeus’s social media accounts, said online comments are often driven by violence and fierce political opposition.

“We’re waiting,” he said. “This is not just for us, but also for young girls who can dream of playing for PSG tomorrow for France.”

Monique Jacques contributing reporting.





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